Category Archives: beauty and the bike

Ten years ago this month, members of Darlovelo (then Darlington Cycling Campaign) got together with film-makers from Darlington Media Group to launch the film project Beauty and the Bike. At the time, no one really knew where the film was going to go. The Media Group had received generous support from Darlington Borough Council to help make the film, and the project began with a search for young women who might be interested in taking part. Continue reading→

More evidence that informed thinking about successful cycling policies is coalescing around the Cycling Campaign’s call for a move towards high quality and safe infrastructure on our arterial routes, couple with traffic calming on all residential streets. An interesting exchange of letters between Richard Lewis, a principal town and transport planner at the London Borough of Newham, and Dave Horton from Lancaster University, asks how much we can learn from the “Copenhagen model”, a somewhat PR-influenced shorthand for “best European practice” as spelt out lucidly and repeatedly by our friend from Assen, David Hembrow.

Dave Horton visited Copenhagen at the beginning of December as part of a wider piece of research called On Our Own Two Wheels, documenting the experience of riding a bicycle in cities around the world. The exchange of letters followed that visit.

As David Horton concludes:

I think increased provision of specific and segregated cycling infrastructure might be key to getting the velorution rolling. The current and massive problem with otherwise wonderful initiatives such as Bikeability (a UK cycle training scheme, not to be confused with the Danish research project of the same name!) is that, given the existing cycling environment, we’re destined to lose the vast majority of those we train. However well we train them, only the hardy minority will stay on their bikes for long. We have strategically to crack, and then mine, the current dominance of car-based urban automobility, and the establishment of cycling corridors – a la Copenhagen and (in a fashion) London – on key, highly visible arterial routes seems one way of doing so.

This echoes the conclusion of Darlington Cycling Campaign following the completion in our town of the Beauty and the Bike project, which we published a year ago. What is becoming clear is that such policies cannot be delivered at a purely local level, whatever the new government rhetoric about localism. Local cycling policies are dominated by the DfT’s and CTC’s hierarchy of provision, which ironically puts infrastructure at the bottom of the list in a table of “considerations” for local authorities to follow. Unlike the fate of Cycling England, this particular policy is likely to survive for some time.

Dave Horton concludes his post with notice of a gathering of like minds at The Phoenix Digital Arts Centre in Leicester on Saturday 4th and Sunday 5th June 2011. Perhaps this will come up with strategies for making national in the UK, cycling policies that clearly are “best practice” elsewhere.

Netherlands-based Mark Wagenbuur has recently uploaded several new videos, one of which shows those situations in the Netherlands where you have cycle paths vs. those where you do not:

The logic is simple and obvious – the greater the amount and speed of motorised traffic, the greater the need for safe and high-quality cycling infrastructure. David Hembrow explores this logic further with a recent post on his blog.

But behind this policy lies a wider approach to urban planning. Residential streets are designed for residential use, and road planning ensures that rat-running, the scourge of many of Darlington’s streets, is simply not possible.

A few examples of this have appeared in Darlington, notably on the Haughton cycle route on Brunswick Street. But this is the exception rather than the rule for residential streets. Developing a cycling culture in Britain requires town planners and politicians to consider urban development more holistically. Cycling cannot simply be bolted on to an existing plan. Rather it needs to be an integral, and contributory factor, in a wider vision for residential streets, urban mobility, and the place of motorised traffic in our living spaces.

The opportunity is now there for Darlington, and other UK towns, to adopt just this approach, with Local Transport Plan 3, which will frame future transport thinking until 2025, now under consideration. But rather than being scared off by the excellent standards of infrastructure apparent in David and Mark’s videos, local authorities in the UK would do well to look again at the example of Bremen in our own film, Beauty and the Bike. In Bremen, levels of cycling are high (25%) despite very patchy standards of infrastructure. Here, cycle paths were first installed in the 1970’s, at a time when traffic levels – and infrastructure build standards – were generally much lower than today.

But behind the development of cycling infrastructure even then was a policy of urban planning that recognised where and how motorised traffic should be organised. The infrastructure pictured here also includes a ramp across every side street that slows down turning traffic, and gives priority to cyclists on the cycle path. Moreover, these side streets all have 20mph speed limits, are typically one way for motorised traffic but two way for cyclists, and lead to nowhere for through traffic.

The double concerns of everyday cyclists in the UK – poor infrastructure and motorist behaviour – mirror perfectly the wider perspective that has lain behind core urban transport policy in this country. Thankfully, a debate is now opening up that questions this. As this post is being written, Lynn Sloman is speaking in Darlington on the findings of a report commissioned by the Department for Transport to independently quantify the results obtained by the three Sustainable Travel Demonstration Towns; Darlington, Peterborough and Worcester. Her excellent book Car Sick offers a way forward for de-motorising our urban centres. Cycling Campaign members are there to meet her.

LTP3s around the country really have to decide – is cycling going to continue as a bolt on to car-centric urban transport policy? Or is it time for the UK to begin the long process of de-motorising our towns?

The excitement of the film premiere is over. Back we go to “normal” life in Darlington. We’ve managed to keep the beautiful dutch bikes – in fact we’re going to buy 40 more this year and expand the bike hire scheme. But how many girls will keep on cycling? We know that cycling is still “uncool” for many UK teenagers – perhaps because it feels so unsafe on our meagre infrastructure? Here, one of the girls from Beauty and the Bike, Lauren Pyrah, comes behind the camera to ask what is happening to the Darlington girls now. Kate, one of the original group, is joined by Francesca to shout the praises of everyday cycling. But Ashley has stopped. Why? And will politicians listen?

Contact Details

PLEASE NOTE
We are a voluntary organisation. Our phone may be on silent when our volunteer is at his/her day job. Sending an email is usually quicker.

Email:
cool(at)darlovelo.orgPhone:
07519741734

Darlovelo on Twitter

Blog Archives

Facebook

Are you passionate about children’s right to play out in the streets where they live? Would you like to get more involved and change things for children? Would you like to be part of the growing movement and meet other street play enthusiasts?

The 6th annual Playing Out Activator Day is in Birmingham on 30th March. We have been contacted by a Darlington resident who is going and is happy to offer a lift to the event.

This temporary cycleway in Utrecht is better than any permanent infrastructure in #Darlington, a cycle demonstration town.Cycling in Utrecht accounts for up to 33% of all trips [2014] whereas is Darlington, cycling accounts for < 3% [2017]

BicycleDutchThis morning I went back to the (future) largest bicycle parking in the world to see how the new temporary access path works in rush hour. Utrecht, Netherlands. See for yourself: ... See MoreSee Less